Ferrari returned to the top step of the podium in the World Endurance Championship at Austin on Sunday, but it was a race of mixed fortunes for the Italian manufacturer as its other factory car failed to score.
Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen recovered from a difficult start to the six-hour race at the Circuit of the Americas before inheriting the lead when the race-leading #7 Toyota suffered a hydraulic failure with just 11 minutes remaining. The #50 Ferrari eventually took the chequered flag by 4.7s, beating the #38 Cadillac V-Series.R of Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais and Jack Aitken,
It was Ferrari’s first WEC victory of 2026 and the first for the #50 crew since the 2025 Qatar 1812km.
The result also revived Ferrari’s hopes of defending its world titles, with the #50 crew now just 21 points off the championship lead with three races remaining.
The victory was far from straightforward, however.
Molina made a strong start before the #50 Ferrari adopted an off-sequence pitstop strategy designed to keep tabs on Toyota, BMW and Cadillac while also escaping traffic. That initially dropped the car down the order, but it gradually worked its way back into podium contention.
Nielsen and Fuoco then made the most of the car’s pace during the second half of the race. In the final hour, Nielsen moved from third to second when the Alpine ahead of him made a mistake, before inheriting the lead when Nyck de Vries’ Toyota ground to a halt.
Ferrari had deliberately tried to cover Toyota from a strategic perspective, particularly with the manufacturers’ championship in mind.
“We tried to cover the Toyota strategically, also thinking about the manufacturers’ championship,” Nielsen explained. “Our goal was to stay ahead of them, but at the same time we needed to get out of traffic.
“We took some risks, knowing that a Safety Car could have completely eliminated our advantage or cost us a huge amount of time.
“When the first Virtual Safety Car brought us back together with the others, we knew we just had to push. I think we made very good decisions and did a great job in difficult conditions.”
Nielsen also had to manage his tyres during his battle with the recovering Alpine in the closing stages.
“My engineer told me there was an Alpine behind me that was catching because it was pushing hard to make up for its penalty,” he said. “I tried to manage the situation without destroying the tyres completely. Whenever it got closer, I was able to pull away again, so it was a bit like an elastic band. But I never thought about letting it past. I wanted to be the one to cross the finish line first.”
#51 Ferrari’s lost opportunity
Ferrari’s other factory 499P had a very different race. Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi started from pole and the #51 Ferrari looked to be the car best placed to challenge Toyota for victory.
Giovinazzi produced a superb opening stint, retaining the lead and building an advantage of as much as 20 seconds over the chasing pack.
But the race changed dramatically during the car’s second pitstop, when an issue with the restart procedure left the Ferrari stationary in its pitbox for much longer than expected.
“The #51 started really well, but unfortunately there was an error during the pitstop on the driver’s side,” explained Ferrari endurance race engineer Giuliano Salvi.
“It was something that had never happened before and it’s something we will have to investigate. Basically, the car was switched off and we had to perform a reset, which cost us around 30 seconds. In four years, we had never experienced anything like this. We will have to understand what caused it so that it doesn’t happen again in the future.”
The lost time was particularly costly because Toyota had shown strong long-run pace throughout the weekend.
“We were going well, but honestly I can’t say whether it would have been enough to win,” Salvi admitted. “From Free Practice onwards, we had noticed that Toyota had very strong pace and that concerned us a lot. They qualified further back, but over the long runs they were extremely fast.”
The #51 had benefited from running in clean air during its stint at the front, which was particularly valuable at COTA because of the impact of traffic on the cars’ aerodynamic performance.
“Being at the front allowed the #51 to build a gap because having clean air is fundamental at this track to avoid problems with the slipstream and the resulting loss of aerodynamic performance,” said Salvi.
“Meanwhile, the Toyotas were stuck in traffic. It’s difficult to know how things would have played out without the problems, but there certainly would have been a battle with them. They would have given us a very hard time.”
The Ferrari also struggled for pace after the pitstop, with both Pier Guidi and Calado complaining about the car’s performance.
“That was independent of the hard tyres we fitted at the end,” Salvi said. “Those were necessary because we needed to push hard and recover, which would not have been possible with the medium tyres.”
Calado described the frustration of seeing a potential victory slip away: "After a perfect start to the race, things got complicated and we weren’t able to secure a great result. Having secured the Hyperpole, we certainly set off with the ambition of achieving a better result.
“Unfortunately, during ‘Giovi’s’ stint, there was a mix-up with the procedures which cost us time. This threw our plans into disarray and is undoubtedly frustrating, not least because we thought we could win by getting back into the race thanks to the safety car periods.
“On the other hand, it worked in our favour that the #7 car had a problem and retired. These aren’t the sort of things to be happy about, but ultimately we haven’t lost anything in the standings, except that there’s one less race to tackle in our bid to mount a comeback.”
Ferrari refuses to give up on titles
The Austin victory was Ferrari’s first of 2026 and the third for the #50 499P crew, giving the manufacturer renewed momentum with three races remaining at Fuji, Barcelona and Monza.
Ferrari’s focus now turns to making the most of the strengths demonstrated by Fuoco, Molina and Nielsen’s comeback in Texas.
“For the way the race started, we didn’t expect to be able to win with the #50,” said Salvi. “After starting in the midfield, it recovered very well. The car was well balanced. I know Nicklas complained about the handling on some occasions, but with the temperatures being so high, that is something that can happen.
“In the second half of the race, we kept the medium tyres because that was the most common choice among everyone, and the strategy worked.
“Initially, we had gone off sequence, as the #83 did. Starting further back means you run into traffic problems, and that also affected Toyota.
“That’s why we brought the pitstop forward, to get out of the chaos created by rivals and GT traffic. It’s something that is difficult for spectators to understand, but if you look at the lap times in clean air, they were ultimately in line with those of the fastest cars.”
